Of many definitions of hope that I've come across in recent years, one by Vaclav Havel comes closest to what I believe. Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia when communism came to an end and then became president of the Czech Republic in 1993 and remained president until 2003. Havel was a playwright and novelist; he has written non-fiction and was a noted writer in Eastern Europe. Because much of his writings in the late 70's and 80's focused on human rights and politics, he was imprisoned under the communist regime. It was while he was in prison, a brutal experience, that he wrote these words to his wife, Olga, about hope: "Hope is a dimension of the spirit. It is not outside us, but within us." A few months later he expanded on what he wrote, "The more I think about it, the more I incline to the opinion that the most important thing of all is not to lose hope and faith in life itself... This doesn't mean closing one's eyes to the horrors of the worldÑquite the contrary, in fact... (Hope) is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." I read this quote in a book I'm reading called Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed. It is about grass roots change and hope.

I daresay that this kind of hope was going through Jesus' mind when he gathered with his friends in the Upper Room and shared with him what we now call the Last Supper. John gives us the most detail about this gathering, or at least what John thought had taken place. Jesus washed his friend's feet, gave them a new commandment to love and talked about what it would be like when he was no longer with them. It is this last teaching that gives us a glimpse of hope. Jesus likely knew that he was going to push the boundaries of what the Romans would accept and so he was trying to strengthen his followers by suggesting that regardless of how things turn out for him, this is what makes sense: love and unity. If you live by love, you won't go wrong. If you strive for unity, our message of love will survive. This is hope even in the face of death, and a horrible death at that!

Do we have this kind of hope? Do we as individuals have this kind of hope? Do we as a community of faith have this kind of hope? I do know that our hope in the future of the United Church is being sorely tested these days. But even in the midst of uncertainty, I will say this: even if the United Church of Canada doesn't survive this post-modern era, I still have a certainty that life makes sense, that Jesus' message of love and unity still makes sense and that the Church will survive in one form or another... precisely because we have a message of hope that makes sense for the future of our planet, in partnership with other faiths and people of goodwill.

Thinking about the future of the United Church is troubling to many of us. At the Emerging Spirit worship we had a couple of weeks ago here, Keith Howard, the Executive Director, said that the United Church will look fundamentally different in 10 years. Worship will be different, outreach will be different, our exercise of leadership will be different and the form of paid, accountable ministry (people like Christine and me) will be different. Many of us in the United Church may have other jobs and be a part-time minister for a congregation, what is known as worker-priest model of ministry. Whatever changes take place, one thing that needs to happen is that a bridge needs to be created across the generational divides. We need to deepen the dialogue between people of different ages and interests.

I recently came across a video that was put on YouTube called "Lost Generation." I want to share part of it and then make some comments and then share the end. We make all kinds of assumptions about generations, young and old, when what is so needed is face-to-face conversations. (Show half of Lost Generation. ) I wish I knew more about the person who created this video, but I don't. Some of the comments that I've heard about this video is that people have been hooked. They say, "I heard the first part of this video and I thought it captured well my understanding of young people." It is interesting the assumptions we make about other generations... about "other" in general. Now, let's see the other half of this video. (Show second half.)

I do know that this video was made in response to a political movement in Argentina called "from the bottom up." It's the idea that change comes from the bottom up, not from the top down. Change and transformation needs to be grass-roots in origin and energy. You can't impose change and transformation on a society or institution; it has to come from within and move up and through an organization... kind of like hope.

And that's what we need to be about in churches, from the bottom up, and about hope. Jesus knew something quite profound when he talked about being one, and being different from the world. John used the "world" in his gospel, in some cases, to mean the worldly powers of greed and self-interest. Jesus knew of the worldly temptations of greed and self-interest. He was constantly reminding folk that the way of love is self-giving and sharing in a community. We are back to love and unity. Hope is created and celebrated when we seek unity. And that's what we need to do with the generational divide; we need to seek unity. And one of the ways we do this is simply through getting to know one another. I remember an incident with Iain, when he was going through his rebellious phase in his early and mid-teens. He didn't go to school one day and I was furious. He was playing a computer game and I remember opening my mouth to yell at him when something told me to stop, breathe, take a moment and have a conversation. I did that, I initiated a conversation with him and we talked. And that moment began a turnaround in our relationship and in him. We listened to each other; we spoke to each other. We sought unity. Creating hope begins with groups coming together to share their ideas, their aspirations, their desires. The only way the church will survive is for us to speak together of our ideas, our aspirations, and our desires. The church will survive if we seek hope together.

In God's love ultimately and really, there is no generational divide. We are! But it takes hard work to get there. It takes hope to get there. It takes the risk of being vulnerable and beginning a conversation, a dialogue. From the bottom up, we can continue the Church and the message of love and unity that Jesus embodied. From the bottom up, we can rediscover a sense of hope that moves us beyond mere optimism, because power from the bottom up makes sense; life makes sense... abundant life for all makes sense. And for this, I have hope.

Amen.

Amen